


Fish Scales

by thompsonitis



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Blood, Drowning, Gen, Swearing, also, death - but he respawns so i'm not sure if it counts, he gets saved though, one merman, or rather mermen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-01-27 21:04:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1722497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thompsonitis/pseuds/thompsonitis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>”Mermaids are real?” Lalna says, incredulous, and this is largely because Honeydew forgot to tell him that they were.</p><p>Or: the one where Xephos isn't a spaceman, but rather a merman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally poster on my tumblr- I figured I should really post some things on Archive before I forgot entirely that I had an account that I could post things on.
> 
> Inspired because of this post: http://thompsonitis.tumblr.com/post/61563924084/thompsonandco-tigerphantom-lrceleste

This is his first time alone for as long as he could remember. Truly alone, that is, with no one around for miles.

He scratches his beard, rubs the tips of it together thoughtfully. He’s thinking about growing it out, like a proper dwarven adult. He was always given the stink eye if he didn’t trim his beard once in a while back in his hometown, since the other dwarves didn’t like the ‘half’ following their traditions (even though he’s told them time and time again that his mother had stayed true to his father). But there’s no one out here to stop him, is there?

Khaz Modan is no longer his home and Honeydew must make a new one for himself out in this wilderness.

\- X -

He dies for the first time while trying to get to the chests on the other side of a jumping puzzle.

The lava eats at him until there is nothing left, vicious bites that leave his skin boiling, his flesh burned away by its greed until his very bones are eaten too. Honeydew only has time to yelp, but has all the time in the world to feel himself die.

The world is black. The pain is gone. Nothing but a void in place of the universe, like the caverns in which he was born in; a dim light somewhere below that he cannot see, illuminating a place with no walls and no ceiling.

Then, he gasps, loud and painful. He can feel his lungs expand to take air in, his muscles moving. His limbs flinch away from something, but all he does is bury himself deeper in the sand. There’s snow coating the beach where he is, falling on him like bits of confetti.

He’s alive.

\- X -

There’s a nice cave nearby the beach where he woke up.

It’s big, spacious, has enough walls that he could easily cover up the holes. He thinks he’ll make it his home.

The Yogcave has a nice ring to it.

\- X -

Honeydew is drowning under the ice.

In all honesty, he should have known better. The ice is dangerous, that’s a fact. He shouldn’t have been walking over it, or at least should have been looking where he was going.

He wasn’t, though, and that’s how he fell through a small hole in the ice. He scraped his arm against the ice when he fell through, but he can’t tell if he’s bleeding. It’s a strange thing to worry about, considering that he’s drowning, but he’s tired and feels heavy, death is too big a thing to think of in the water.

Honeydew’s doesn’t know if he’ll miraculously live a second time. Until he knows for sure, he’ll treat every life-threatening situation with the serious attitude they deserve. But right now…

He can’t find where the hole he fell through is, he can’t keep himself close enough to the ice to punch through it either; disorientation and the refraction of light have become Honeydew’s nemesis. Drowning, drowsing, there doesn’t seem to be a difference.

Under water there is no such thing as the sky, nor up or down. It’s flying without gravity, without air. His hands move sluggishly, pushing at water and it feels like he’s meeting nothing. He can’t tell if he’s still sinking anymore. His lungs are burning; oxygen expelling without his consent, bubbles mingling with the freezing waters. His vision is starting to blacken.

Should he be worried?

In the corner of his eyes, he sees a something snake through the water, graceful as a bird in flight. He sees it again, on his other side, and he wonders if it’s some dangerous sea creature waiting for him to die, circling him as his life slowly filtered out for another time.

It looks like it’s circling closer.

He blinks, or he thinks he does- he might have passed out for a moment. When he opens them, it’s to see two bright blue eyes, almost glowing in the dimness, in front of him. He could have sworn that the thing was farther away. Honeydew blinks again, out of surprise, of habit. When he opens his eyes, it’s to the feeling of lips pressed against his and something sweet filling his lungs- air.

He blinks a third time, sluggish, and suddenly his body is moving, in a direction that may be up. There’s light above, Honeydew thinks, almost disinterestedly. He twists his head and in the water it’s a slow movement that takes more effort than it should. He looks at what is dragging him, cutting through the water like it’s not there and saving his life.

It’s not exactly what he expected.

First he sees dark blue fish scales. Then the agile length of a fish, far too large, contorting in the water, maroon fins detailed with gold. Next he sees the torso of a man, lean and a bit on the thin side, broad shoulders and a narrow waist, long brown hair floating around his slim neck. There are slashes on his neck that move slightly- gills.

Honeydew thinks he’s dreaming.

They break the surface, Honeydew gasping, and almost immediately the chill bites at Honeydew’s nose, making it ruddy, his face red. He can barely feel his extremities. It’s almost warmer underneath the ice, and that is what worries him the most. Aside from the almost human like creature that is pushing him incessantly out of the water, making these shrill little cries that Honeydew cannot even begin to understand.

“Mermaids are  _real_?” is the first thing that comes out of Honeydew’s mouth when he’s gotten his breath back. He’s scrambling out of the hole, twisting around at the same time to try and get a better look at the mermaid, or rather, merman, underneath the sunlight. He nearly falls back in twice, which is probably why when Honeydew is finally back on thicker ice, the merman just sort of helplessly stares at him, half out of the water, frowning at him like he’s suspicious.

“Mermen  _are real_.” Honeydew says again.

The merman gives a shrill cry as if in response, tugging at the hem of Honeydew’s soaked pants. It- he points towards the shore, then nudges Honeydew. “I- what? Already had enough of me?” he asks, but he’s already shakily standing up, eyes fixed on the smooth transition of scales to skin at the merman’s waist.

Out of the water, the merman’s hair is much longer than Honeydew thought it was; it reaches just past his shoulders. He had a beard, too, thin and neat. Honeydew wonders how he shaves, if he needs to at all.

He screeches at Honeydew again, and something thumps the ice from underneath, making little spider-web cracks appear in the ice, sudden like a sneeze. The merman winces, curling back into the water in pain so that only his head is out in the open.

Honeydew cannot help the sympathizing wince his face makes, the little step towards the pale creature he takes. “You alright there?” he asks.

The merman isn’t having any of that.

He rears up out of the water, glaring venomously at Honeydew, and screeches again. With one hand, he points at Honeydew, then at the snowy beach, his other hand clutching the ice to keep his balance.

“Alright, alright!” Honeydew exclaims. He slips and slides back to the shore, turning around as soon as he steps foot on land.

He sees the merman go below the ice again, hears a splash, and there is nothing left of the merman at all.

Honeydew sneezes.

\- X -

Honeydew spends eight weeks in limbo.

Every morning, he takes a nice walk around Yogcave, gathering whatever he needed above ground. By afternoon, he’s down mining in the hole he made. Once in awhile, he defends himself from a pale-faced man who loves leaving behind little  _gifts_. By evening, after eating his dinner, he goes down to the beach.

Eight weeks and there has been no sign of the merman.

Honeydew’s doesn’t know if the merman was real or not anymore. It might have all just been a hallucination brought about by his panic, hysteria, the lack of oxygen; like drunken dreams that never make any sense.

He never noticed how awfully lonely it is out here.

\- X -

Old Peculier, Knight Peculier, Verigan Antioch the Second- it’s like this guy can’t decide what to call himself.

But Honeydew smiles anyway, and adds ‘friend’ to that list.

\- X -

He hates the desert, but doesn’t hate the sand. It’s probably because sand could also be found at the beach, and next to a lovely hole, it’s one of his favourite places.

Still no sign of mermaids or mermen.

It might really have been a dream. Peculier had looked awfully confused when he had asked about people with fish tails.

\- X -

The world is saved. Honeydew can finally breathe easy.

\- X -

There’s something missing.

That’s what Honeydew tells Peculier and Daisy and Lysander and anyone who asks why he looks so antsy. Mostly, they think he’s grieving for Granny Bacon, for the others who did not make it, and he might be. Icaria’s a great place as any to heal and mourn.

But it’s not just that. There really is something missing in Icaria, in the whole of the mainland, and it’s why he boards the boat to Tekkitopia, leaving behind all he’s ever known and the people that he loves.

Before him is the next great adventure and around him is the sea. He doesn’t know where to go from here.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

Tekkitopia’s a nice place.

Honeydew has met so many different people since he has gotten here. Gotten into quite a few scraps too.

It’s nice, though. He doesn’t have to hold back here, doesn’t need to be mindful of other people’s mortality as much as he was in the mainland. The people here respawn, just like him.

(But he guesses it would make sense that no one understood the hows and whys of the process here either.)

He’s mostly living with Lalna, who had taken it upon himself to show Honeydew how Tekkitopia works. He says mostly because while he and Honeydew operated out of the work shed, Lalna still disappeared off to his Castle for days at a time.

Honeydew doesn’t mind it as much as he thought would. Hasn’t ever since Lalna left Honeydew for the first time to do science.

The quiet is different here, not as oppressing. He’s able to relax for the first time in months, and he’s feels like he’s getting the hang of peace. He doesn’t jump when Lalna shouts anymore, doesn’t glare up at the ceiling of the work shed in the middle of the night, sleepless.

He hasn’t stopped walking by the beach in the evening; it’s a habit that he has kept for well over a year now, one that he isn’t sure why he keeps.

But this is the first time something has cropped up during his walks.

“- don’t see why you do this. It’s not very relaxing to take a walk when it’s almost night.” Lalna says. Honeydew isn’t paying any attention.

This is one of the rare times that Lalna follows him on his walks and they talk about nothing and everything, but Honeydew cannot help but focus on something else other than the scientist’s words.

There’s something moving by the beach, red and blue, glinting in the sunlight. Honeydew can’t help but be suspicious of it, can’t help but think that he’s forgetting something when he goes closer. “Lalna,” he says, “what’s that over there?”

Lalna looks over at what he’s pointing, shrugging, before bending over to roll up his the hem of his trousers again. “Dunno. Wanna check it out?” he says when he straightens up. Honeydew is already moving towards it, sharp eyes taking in the struggling but indistinct figure.

“Might as well,” he says, trudging through the sand. Lalna jogs to catch up, unsteady on the sand- there is a give here that doesn’t happen on dirt, a give that Honeydew is far too used to; he walks on sand like it is solid, like a sailor on his ship, or a pilot on his aircraft.

When they get closer, Honeydew stops for a moment with a small gasp, eyes widening comically. Lalna also stops, confused and unbelieving. He narrows his eyes like it will help him see things better, leans forward while his feet take a step back. “Is that-?” he starts, but Honeydew runs ahead, swearing loudly.

Lalna runs behind, almost tripping. The figure in the sand is becoming clearer every step Honeydew takes, more distinct, yet with every step reality is falling apart around him. There’s an excitement making his blood rush in a way it hasn’t since his glory days, making his heart pound and his old disbelieving self come back.

It’s a mermaid- no, it’s a merman, Honeydew’s sure- with a blue tail and maroon fins detailed with golds, struggling inside of a fishing net.

“What the fuck?” Lalna says, rushing over to the mermaid anyway. Honeydew’s already by the merman, kneeling, trying to get him to calm down. “Mermaids are  _real_?” he asks, and this is largely because Honeydew forgot to explain that they are.

But then again, he wasn’t sure for the longest time himself.

“Shut up, Lalna!” he snaps. It’s uncharacteristic of him. He’s always been more easy going and accepting, hasn’t ever been quick to anger. Right now is an exception. He’s panicking, he doesn’t know what to do.

The merman, and Honeydew knows that it’s the one who saved him so long ago, is whining pitifully, struggling in the net; it’s tight, pressing into flesh, and every move makes thee merman cry out more. Honeydew spots red dotting the sand, and he feels nauseous. “Fuck,” he says.

“Fuck.” Lalna echoes. “Hang- hang on, I’ll get some- shears or something, just. Stay.” he tells Honeydew, glancing once more at the merman before running off, back to the work shed. He kicks up sand as he goes, stumbling more than once. There’s a sort of recklessness in the way the scientist moves, one that Honeydew rarely sees. Panic.

Honeydew looks away, back to the situation that’s at hand, and his own hands are hovering above the merman uselessly, hesitantly.

The merman screeches.

_Fuck._

Honeydew reaches for the net, plucking at it. Desperately, he tries to pry the net apart, but it’s tangled and the cords are thick. The merman slams his tail against the sand, and bits of sand go flying, falling into the rising tide and settling again. It looks like he’s trying to get back into the ocean, blindly following the familiar feeling of water that laps at the tips of his tail.

“Oh shit, no, wait- you can’t-” Honeydew says, hugging the struggling figure tightly around the midriff, around arms that are caught in the net. Blood smears onto his forearm, and from his position, he can see that one of the merman’s fins are damaged. He’s not sure of the extent, doesn’t know much about marine life to begin with.

“Hey, there little fella,” he grunts out, trying to hold the merman still so that the net didn’t hurt him any more than it already has. “You need to calm down now. You’re safe here, we’ll get that net off of ya’ in a jiffy.” He’s not even sure if the merman can understand him, but it’s worth a try.

The merman seems to be calming down, anyway. Or maybe he’s just tiring himself out.

He makes a shrill cry, slamming his tail into the sand and trying to use the force to propel himself into the water. Honeydew is stronger, though, so he grits his teeth and holds on tight, digging his feet into the sand, waiting it out. “What, had enough of me already?” Honeydew jokes, but it falls flat even to him. It doesn’t take long for the merman to stop struggling, flopping in Honeydew’s arm, curling into himself.

Honeydew feels guilty for doing the right thing.

“‘s okay, friend, my buddy’s gonna get something to cut this off,” Honeydew mumbles. He keeps his solid grip on the merman, afraid that he would try again to return to the ocean. Honeydew may not be as bright as Lalna, but he knew that if the merman tried to go to his home as he is he’d end up dead sooner or later.

The merman whines, high-pitched. There’s moisture on his cheeks; Honeydew can’t tell if it’s from his sodden hair or if the merman’s crying. Can merpeople cry?

He hears footsteps, hard and fast. Lalna. “It’s gonna be okay, buddy, just hang on a bit longer.”

Suddenly, Lalna is beside Honeydew, one hand moving timidly over the net, pressed tightly against the merman’s body. Lalna audibly takes a deep breath, and Honeydew can see the panic in his friend’s eyes drain away to be replaced by a determined look. “Right. So how are we going to do this?” Lalna mutters.

Sharp blue eyes flicker to Honeydew, then back to the thick cords cutting into flesh. “Hold on tight, if it-”

“He!” Honeydew interrupts, indignant for the merman’s sake. Lalna barely pauses.

“-if he moves, he’s going to get hurt.”

Lalna hefts the shears up in his other hand, and the merman freezes before trembling in Honeydew’s grip, incredibly quiet compared to how he was a few minutes ago.

He’s afraid.

Honeydew gulps, tightening his grip on the merman, holds him steady as Lalna hands traced the cords of the net, pulling gently to see which places would be easier pull away from the merman and be cut. His hands are steady, a juxtaposition to the merman’s shivers.

“Alright,” Lalna mumbles, “okay.”

He lifts the heavy shears and starts cutting away.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr. Last part, if only because I'm unlikely to write more of it.

There’s a stranger in the aquarium with the merman.

He’s been in there for the last five minutes, leisurely looking about him with a critical eye. Honeydew doesn’t recognise him.

The small smirk on his face, the curly hair, the fancy coat; it would be hard to forget a man who called so much attention to himself just by existing. Still, Honeydew cannot help but feel that he has seen him before.

Trying to remember gives him only headaches and flashbacks, the smell of iron in his nose, a memory.

But the main point is that the man has been lounging about inside of an aquarium, filled with water, for the past five minutes, and has neither gone up to take breath of air, or passed out from the lack of oxygen. It’s unnatural.

“Lalna,” Honeydew murmurs, keeping an eye on the man. The merman is hiding in the seaweed that Lalna added to the aquarium since his arrival. Hasn’t shown himself since they had taken him to Lalna’s Castle. “Who’s he?” he asks, shifting his weight to his other leg. There are no chairs in the computer room to sit on. Honeydew’s more comfortable standing anyway.

Lalna looks up from where he’s fiddling with the circuitry of the computer that opened up the Castle doors. Honeydew can’t see his eyes through the tinted goggles, but he knows Lalna well enough that the twist of his mouth when he turns to face the mystery man is telling.

“Him? Ridge. Resident demi-god of Tekkitopia.” Lalna says, putting his wrench on the ground and pulling off his gloves. He pushes his goggles up to sit on his head, framed by messy blonde hair. He massages his wrist absent-mindedly, and underneath the white sleeve of his lab coat Honeydew can see a blemish, dark. A scar.

“Demi-god?” Honeydew asks, not quite as incredulous as Lalna was about mermaids. Reality is like a false frame, now. There are few things that Honeydew won’t believe in now, but he’s allowed to doubt.

Lalna nods, “Yeah. Flies around without using any of the rings and makes a complete mess of things.” He sighs explosively; a gust of irritated air. “Don’t trust him.” Lalna tells him, looking Honeydew in the eye, entirely serious. He looks away a moment later, running a hand through his hair, nearly dislodging his goggles, and sighs again.

“I’m hurt,” a voice says, smooth and eerie in ways that Honeydew cannot describe. In the room it echoes, but the echoes register as something else in Honeydew brain, something that whispers in his ears, unintelligible and familiar. Magic, he thinks, but isn’t sure. The magic he encountered never came close to this sensation.

Honeydew turns around to the only possible source, and he can’t quite believe of his eyes. Ridge is upright, floating in water like he’s being hung up by strings, an acrobat in his natural element. He’s smiling, smug. “Don’t trust me? What have I ever done to you, Lalna?” he says, his mouth forming the words. It shouldn’t be possible to hear him through the water, but it is.

Honeydew glances back to Lalna, who glares at Ridge and frowns unhappily. “I can’t quite remember.” Lalna says, pleasant if not for the steely look in his eyes.

Ridge laughs, turning away so that his back is to them. The sound makes Honeydew uncomfortable, makes him shift where he stands and his fingers twitch at his side.

Honeydew notices that there are no bubbles in the water when he speaks.

“Why’s he here again?” Honeydew asks Lalna, tilting his head towards the scientist, but keeping his eyes on Ridge. Lalna stands up, dusting off his trousers. He leaves his wrench and gloves on the floor, nudging them with his boot to sit against the machine he was fiddling with so that no one trips on them. “If we don’t trust him?”

Lalna shrugs helplessly. “The merman hasn’t eaten in two days and he’s hurt. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Honeydew nods, patting him on the shoulder. “I’s alright,” he says gruffly. “You did your best.” Lalna doesn’t say anything, replies with a twist of his lips down and a flicker of his eyes to the side instead. Honeydew knows better than to try and convince him by now.

Honeydew sighs, folding his arms. Ridge isn’t doing anything but floating there. How is he supposed to help them by doing nothing?

Honeydew waits another minute, staring at the back of Ridge’s fancy coat with nothing but disgruntlement, before anything happens.

Ridge leans forward, towards the forest of seaweed. This is the point when Honeydew blinks, must have, for when he opens his eyes again the merman is struggling in Ridge’s grasp, panicky like a startled dog, flighty as a bird. Honeydew takes an unconscious step forward, but Lalna puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes his head mutely.

The merman looks very different now. His previously long hair is now short, cut off by Lalna when it got tangled with the net. There’s a red looking gash on the merman’s right arm, a ragged looking fin on the left side of his tail. He looks tired and hungry, like he has had little sleep. His eyes are sunken slightly, skin pale. His eyes haven’t lost any of their colour though.

“There you are,” Ridge says, voice playful. The mermaid stills, no longer trying to wrench his uninjured arm out of Ridge’s grip. “What’re you doing so far from home?” Ridge asks, and he lets the merman go. The merman retreats back to the seaweed forest, but Honeydew can see flashes of maroon, of gold, and he knows that the merman is for once interested in what he is being offered.

There’s a faint noise, like the whale songs that Honeydew heard once or twice on the voyage to Tekkitopia, but fainter, more human like in quality, no less mysterious and otherworldly. There’s a sense of discontent that springs from his chest; there’s something missing in his world, and his only connection to the world that held what he is missing is this composition of jumbled notes.

The merman’s screeches and cries made more sense underwater.

“I’ll take care of it,” Ridge offers, when the song reaches its peak. There’s another noise, and Ridge smiles wide, teeth glinting in the light. “Really.” he says, holding out his hand, palm up, friendly.

The hand on Honeydew’s shoulder tightens unexpectedly. Honeydew chews on his bottom lip, decides not to do anything yet but pay close attention.

There’s a moment of silence. The merman swims out cautiously, swimming around Ridge in guarded circles, slowly closing in on the demi-god. When he’s close enough to touch, Ridge moves his hand, letting his fingers trail gently against the merman’s skin as he swims past, from fleshy shoulder to fishy fins.

Honeydew thinks he missed it, whatever party trick Ridge performed, because the merman spins in the water, gliding away from Ridge before swimming lazily back, a pleased look on his face. The merman says something again, his strange whale song turned human, and Ridge’s impossibly wide grin widens even more. “Mm. Yes. Who were you with again?”

The merman’s face scrunches up worriedly, his mouth opens and closes, but Honeydew cannot for the life of him understand. Neither can Lalna, Honeydew can tell from the frustrated noise he makes in the back of his throat.

“Well, I can only  _try_.” Ridge says with a small smile and wave, and then shoots off up to the open air. He flies out of the water to land lightly on the other side of the glass, soundless. He looks as comfortable in the open as he was in the water, saunters towards Honeydew and Lalna, satisfied.

“His name is Xephos,” he says, and Honeydew blinks. Lalna is quicker on the uptake, nods and steps forward, so that Honeydew is behind him. Lalna opens his mouth, but Ridge speaks over him with a little flick of his hand, satisfaction morphing into boredom. “He eats mostly kelp, small fish, and occasionally crabs.” The information is said offhandedly, like it’s unimportant. Honeydew feels annoyance bubbling up, but pushes it down.

“What did you mean by ‘who were you with?’” Lalna blurts out.

Ridge doesn’t bother with looking surprised, goes straight to amused. “His friends, of course.”

“There’s  _more_?”

Ridge laughs, nodding, “A whole colony, in fact; they’re dying out from overcrowding, too little food and pollution.” he shares. His feet lift off the ground, only the tips of his toes staying in contact with the floorboards. If Honeydew thought Ridge was tall standing normally, Ridge showing off made the demi-god feel larger than life; fitting.

He sighs dramatically, making a sweeping arm motion. “The price of progress,” he says through an unconcerned smile. Lalna flinches, minute, but if Honeydew noticed then surely Ridge had too. Honeydew just gets that feeling.

“Like you don’t use technology too.” Lalna spits out, but there’s the slightest droop in his shoulders.

Ridge shrugs. “Technology is useful,” he says, moving towards the door of the computer room. He’s flying.“But I’ve always had a soft spot for the old ways.”

Ridge opens the door, but turns around just before he exits. “Oh,” he says, “I’ll send his little friends over to you, yes?”

Lalna gapes, “Wha-?”

“Ta ta!”

It’s not until much, much later, that Honeydew looks at the merman- Xephos- and gasps in air. Xephos’ wounds are gone, like they were never there; a miracle. 


End file.
